I never tried WET mode, but I do know for sure the Wireless Client mode does work on both WRT54GL and E3000 with multiple/virtual/guest wireless interfaces. In fact, I'm using such setup right now on a WRT54GL: WAN is configured as a Wireless Client (primary WLIF) and there are other/extra/guest WLIFs configured for 'local' networks (for devices that should be isolated/sitting/connected 'behind' that 'main' wireless network in here).

Funny thing is: this kind of setup usually works just fine in one of my 54GLs during my tests, but sometimes does not work just fine on the other/second/identical unit I have here - that is, might require some extra tweaking when there's WPAx encryption involved. The actual cause is not entirely clear, but it has something to with the MAC addresses being used by the OS, the Broadcom WL driver and the 'nas' daemon.

What usually has to be done? Change NVRAM variable 'wlX.X_hwaddr' so it matches the BSSID being used by the wireless driver. This might help:

I've done this and made it work. On my setup I use three Linksys routers (E1500, E1200v2, and E2500) all three with Shibby's Tomato Firmware. The way I made it work was the following:

Step 1: On the Main router, set a unique and different SSID from the one you plan to use and set a good encryption level (i.e. WPA2). Dont broadcast this SSID.
Step 2: Connect all client routers to the Main router preferrebly as Wireless Ethernet Bridge using the SSID and key from Step 1
Step 3: On all routers (Main and additionals) create a new Virtual Wireless as AP and use the same VSSID name and encryption key on all routers (use a different key and SSID name from the one on STEP 1 or your repeater routers will selfconnect and become pretty much useless on that state).
Step 4: Use the VSSID and key from Step 3 for all your clients and only use the SSID and key from Step 1 to connect more routers.

I know its more complex than with ddwrt but with this you can reach full wireless n speeds of up to 300 mbps ( 2 channels ).

Chuck, what build are you using for your routers?
I have tried your method to connect an E3000 using Shibby's firmware to connect to a N56U (main router) as wireless Ethernet bridge. Wired clients connecting to E3000 works fine, but wireless clients cannot connect to the E3000's VSSID at all. I tried Shibby's build from 099 to 112 but still fails. Grateful to know how you make it work.

WET is for wired devices connected to the client router, no? AFAIK, WDS is intended to do what you describe. WDS works fine with WPA2 in recent versions of Tomato (past year or two).

@ChuckHL if your wireless devices are getting full throughput (not connection rate 300 or whatever, but actual throughput) then they are connected to the host side of the WET bridge (the gateway router in most SOHO settings).

The connection rate doesn't reflect throughput in this setting. Wireless devices will get half or less throughput unless connected to the gateway router. The exception is AP wired to the gateway or using another wireless band for the router - router connection (eg. 5GHz WDS bridge and wireless clients on 2.4GHz).

WET is for wired devices connected to the client router, no? AFAIK, WDS is intended to do what you describe.

Click to expand...

I believe the performance of WET is better than WDS for wired devices. However, I need to have both wireless and wired devices connected to the non-gateway router. So at the moment WDS is my only option. I'd like to use WET + VSSID to get the improved performance for my wired clients, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work. It works fine with OpenWRT.